Pat Sherwood explains the delicate balance between pupusa and push-ups.

On my current incredible CrossFit motorcycle adventure, I’m constantly exposed to new local food and drink at the affiliates we visit. Each country, region or town has some delicious delicacy that the local CrossFit athletes insist we try.

There have been grilled steaks, chicken and seafood that even the strictest nutrition-crazy athlete would have eaten gladly. However, that’s been the exception. The bulk of the “must try” local cuisine is carb-heavy, doughy, fried, greasy food served with some sort of sugary drink.

The conversation always takes the same path. A local CrossFit athlete says, “Oh! You have to try the ! They are so delicious and amazing! You will love them! But they’re not great for the Zone, and you’re from HQ, so you probably won’t eat it.” They are sincere when then say this, not sarcastic.

To their shock and delight, I inform them that just because I work at CrossFit HQ doesn’t mean I’m a robot programmed to be 100 percent strict and correct seven days a week. Hell yes I want to try the local delicacies.

Life is not only about Fran PRs and looking great naked. All the CrossFit athletes I know work hard both inside and outside the gym. But don’t forget that’s only half of life. The other half is playing just as hard as you work. Find the balance that works for you.

The first beer I enjoyed, and it was downhill from there, was Light Ice. It's not boutique, not handmade by some 80 year old brew master with hops grown for generations on his family's farm in a secret mountain valley. It's a mass made mild tasting low alcohol beer (and therefore by inane macho logic, only for wusses) and I'll happily buy you some if you let me know next time you're in Auckland.

I also tried to like beer for many years, not as aggressively as you but from time to time as like many countries, NZ has a strong beer drinking culture and not drinking was considered odd. They all tasted impossibly foul so I stopped for years.
Then one day I was in a restaurant, thirsty tried a Light Ice and really enjoyed it. Since then I've grown more tolerant of stronger flavoured beer and yes, there are some that on a hot day are pure heaven to consume.

The CrossFit Journal is a chronicle of the empirically driven, clinically tested, and community developed CrossFit program. Our mission is to provide a venue for contributing coaches, trainers, athletes, and researchers to ponder, study, debate, and define fitness and collectively advance the art and science of optimizing human performance.